Who’s Your Daddy?

It was only about 2-300 years ago that you wouldn’t even have had the right to think for yourself. In most European countries and in most of the 13 original states (9 of 13 to be exact), there were state sponsored religions. The religions backed up the state via doctrines like “the Divine Rights of Kings” and other such nonsense and the state supported the church with laws and, well, soldiers.

People were taught what to believe, what to think, and if they disagreed, well, they could die. Churches regularly took such matters in their own hands by having their own enforcers take care of business, the prime example being the Inquisition, but their were others. I wish I knew what the body count was for “heretics” burned at the stake, but I am sure it is not a small number. The Church often dictated to the state, or bribed it, to do its work for it, the major example being the Crusades.

But then along came some influential, and brave, thinkers in Europe and we had what most people refer to as the Enlightenment. To be enlightened was to have a light cast upon what you couldn’t see before and a great many folks began to see that what happened naturally was not caused by witches, demons, ghosts, and angels, but as a matter of nature. Our own Benjamin Franklin showed that lightning was just an electrical display and not the wrath of God as was the common belief of the time.

Not only did the invention of the scientific method, one of the greatest intellectual creations of all time along with writing, cast new lights on natural sciences but it had an insidious affect on people’s thinking. Many of the things (most?) that people were told they had to believe turned out to be untrue. And the scientific method refers not to authority, it only refers to observation and logic. Everyone can look at the evidence and decide for themselves.

The scientific method, in essence, required independent thought, independent thought that was anathema to the Church-State which wanted to dictate thought.

Modern Republicans want us to reverse this road we have been on for more than two centuries and go back to an age in which thought was dictated by authorities. I am sure you have seen the graphic on scientific papers regarding climate change, but if you haven’t I have included it (below). Of the almost 14,000 scientific papers on climate change over the last 20 years, less than 0.2% denied climate change. But the Republicans, from their position of authority, have said these folks in the majority are wrong. They are just scientific peons, after all.

The Republicans also deny that Evolution has shaped all of the living organisms on the planet including us, they deny that the Earth is 4.3 billion years old, instead insisting that it is only a few thousands of years old and humans mingled with dinosaurs. (They learned this by reading Alley Oop in the comics, I guess.)

Republicans want to roll back the Enlightenment. The Republicans want to do your thinking for you. The Republicans want to be your Daddy.